Press Release of the Day: Floating Lady

And the press release of the day award goes to the lovely, earnest folk who sent an email to a cc list of about 80 news sources across the state about a woman who is going to run 100k in order to call attention to the slaughter of dolphins.

Jennifer Wolfsong, a 42-year-old Beaverton, Ore., mom saw the documentary The Cove on Netflix and she will now run from Prescott Beach County Park in Rainier , along Oregon’s Highway 30, "finishing at Fort Stevens State Park in Hammond near the wreck of the Peter Iredale ship" on Sept. 1, the day the yearly dolphin slaughter begins in Japan.

It's really the photo that makes the press release though. The email with the release says the photo is of Wolfsong registering for the McDonald Forest Park 50k held in Corvallis May 12.

She's sort of levitating.

The full press release is below. It's a good cause, so let's hope she gets a story … and a better picture of her levitating skills.

BEAVERTON, Ore. — Jennifer Wolfsong, a 42-year-old Beaverton, Oregon mom, will run 100 kilometers on Saturday, Sept. 1 in an effort to raise awareness of the yearly dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan, which begins on the same day.

Wolfsong, a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a longtime animal lover and distance runner who decided to combine two of her passions to show support for a cause she cares deeply about.

“I wanted to do more than just donate money or write a letter,” she said. “I wanted to do something that would really catch people’s attention. I have run some long-distance races before, but nothing this long but it felt like a natural way for me to be able to do something meaningful.”

Wolfsong will begin her run at Prescott Beach County Park in Rainier and take her along Oregon’s Highway 30, finishing at Fort Stevens State Park in Hammond near the wreck of the Peter Iredale ship.

Wolfsong first became aware of the yearly practice of trapping and butchering of dolphins when coming upon the Academy Award-winning documentary “The Cove” on Netflix. The movie details activist Ric O’Barry’s efforts to end the slaughter.

“I always knew that putting dolphins in captivity was a cruel practice, but I had no idea that this industry is financially responsible for the cruel slaughter as well” Wolfsong said. “The movie disturbed me so much, I didn’t sleep well for weeks (and still have trouble sleeping sometimes); I knew I had to do something, something drastic.”

Wolfsong began preparing in October, though she was set back for a couple months from an injury. She used both training runs and some distance races to get ready. She’s run more than 600 miles since her training began.

“To me, the most important thing is to make people aware of what is happening,” she said. “I believe that when people see what is happening, realize how these intelligent animals are taken from their home and put on display, kept hungry so that they will perform on command, they’ll be as upset and moved as I am and will find their own way to make a difference.”